Process of unloading grain cars



T. n. BU'DD. Pnocsss or UNLOADINGfGRAIM CARS.

Patented Nov. 4, 1919.

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APPLICATION FILED APR-h IBIB.

T. u. BUDD. PROCESS OF UNLOADING GRAIN CARS.

APPLICATION FILED APR- 1| l9l8- Patented Nov. 4,1919.

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UN Nu T m UITED STATES n onion.

PROCESS OF UN LOADING GRAIN -C.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 4, 1919.

Application filed April 1, 1918. Serial No. 226,063.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS D. Been, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Processes of Unloading Grain-Cars, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in processes for unloading grain cars and has for one object to provide a process whereby the unloading of cars in such place as an elevator may be expedited and whereby the delay caused by a so-called slow car may be minimized. Other from time to time in the specification.

In unloading grain from cars in elevators and the like, it is customary to have a plurality of tracks with the handling house intermediate a plurality of receiving hoppers along each track. 'Means are provided for taking the grain from the hopper and transporting it into the working house; The loaded cars are run onto these tracks filling the track from one end down to the receiving hoppers, there being a car spotted over each receiving hopper. The men then go into the car and unload each car by hand, discharging in the appropriate receiving hopper. Ordinarily there would be from two to seven hoppers on each track or even more or less on each track. As soon as all the cars in one group on one track have been unloaded and not until all of them have been unloaded the whole string is moved along to spot another group of loaded cars over the receiving hoppers. These cars are unloaded and then another group spotted. Since you have a plurality of cars being unloaded simultaneously and since the grain is going to different points in the working house there is great possibility of a break down or delay at some one of the receiving hoppers. This ties up all. the other cars in the group and the cause'you can not move any of the cars out until all of them have been in their turn unloaded.

Many different causes of delay prevail. For instance, you might have a so-called bulk head car wherein two or three different batches of grain are separated by bulk objects will appear Of the ends of the track and with cars in the string'bepreserved. This requires special handling and manipulation of the grain handling mechanism and of course, all the other cars in the "string must wait until this bulk headed car has been attended to. Also cars may break down. It ma not be possible to move them properly or something wrong with the does not unload easily or something may go wrong in the house and in fact an innumerable number of possibilities of delay are constantly present and any delay at any one car ties up all the other course, as you increase the capacity of the cars and the number of grain handling legs and receiving hoppers you increase the loss caused by the delay of any one car.

oreover, you need twice as much track as you have cars. That is to say; you have at one side of the house the track upon which the loaded cars are run and at the other side of the house the track upon which the" empty cars may stand and it takes a very long piece of property to carry sufficient trackage to give you enough capacity for rapid handling. This kind of property 1s very expensive and thus the cost of erectmg and running an elevator becomes very large.

When a string of loaded cars has been run into the storage track the whole string must be moved as a unit across the unloading zone where the receiving hoppers are located anduntil all the loaded cars have been unloaded and the track for-the storage of the empty cars has been filled no further addition of loaded cars to the system and no Withdrawal of loaded cars from the system can be made, so that much time is wasted in Waiting for the switch engine to come and take away the empties and replace them by a string of loaded cars and the operation cannot be continuous and must be intermittent.

I propose, therefore, to provide such an arrangement of trackage and such means for unloading the cars as will make it possible either to use a shorter piece of property or to use substantially all the property except the ground actually occupied by the elevator and house for the storage of cars. I also propose to provide an arrangement cars in the string.

whereby a sin do not have to wait for the switch engine tracks,

and you will alwa s have enough loaded cars'in storage to esp the house running full blast all the time, provided, of course, the railroad is able to supply them and it is possible for the switch engine to set in loaded cars, take out the empties from time to time and replenish the reservoir of loaded cars and reduce the supply of empties in storage without afiecting in any way the operation of the house and the carrying of my unloading and grain handling system,

Obviously, of course, this same system can be applied to loading up cars and while I have illustrated it as applied to unloading and incoming car arrangement, the showing is purely diagrammatic and Ihave 'not illustrated specific means for loading or unloading cars. If you were loading cars, you would do the same thing, only the railroad would send in empties and take out the loaded cars.

If on were sending out loaded cars, you woul load them with the cars standing just exactly where they stand for unload ng, though frequently, as su gested, you would provlde a separate track, ut if a very large number of empties are being loaded an additional number of tracks might be used and the track used for unloading would be used for loading.

By my arrangement, therefore, I provide pairs of groups of parallel or adjacent one for the loaded cars, the other for the unloaded cars. These tracks join at their inner end and terminate in a track which leads to what I have called a dumping zone or area, though it might be a loading zone or area and successive cars are fed in from the zone or area where they are unloaded and dling zone then the cars are fed out to the empty track. This is a continuous process. T e switch engine adds more loaded cars and takes away the empties. The haulage system moves the cars into the dumping or unloading area and out from the dumping or unloading area.

The terms unloading zone and hanare synonymous. You handle the grain; you load it into the carer you unload it from the car or from the elevator into the car. The point is. you move up a car and either load or unload grain into it and then you move the car out and it is taken away.

By my arrangement, dumping at the end of therefore, with the the track and with loaded track to the dumping.

tipple B ing belt an incomingand outgoing track joining at the dump, I am able to carry on a continuous unloading process. All the switch engine has to do is place more loaded cars on each incoming track and take the empties from the outgoing track. My hauling cable moves the loaded cars in and the empties out and the dumping process can be continuous while the switching 'rocess is intermittent owing to the fact t at there is always a reservoir or supply of cars waiting to be unloaded. This arrangement, therefore, cuts the length of the plot of land upon which the tracks must be laid in half and effects a great saving because one of the greatest expenses in connection with elevators. is the amount of land used for traokage .and the very large amount of vacant s ace which must be taken because the trac age needs length and not width exce t at the point where the elevator and wor (ing 'house and the track are side by side. In other words, the total width of the plot of ground under the old system depends on the width of track plus the width of the elevator; whereas with my arrangement and process the to- Fig. 3 is a plan new of an elevator work- 'ing housing and track arrangement;

Fig. 4 is a section through a part ofthe housing and dumping shed;

Fig. 5 is a section along the line 55 of Fig. 3.

ike parts are indicated by like characters in all the figures:

A is a receiving shed of an elevator. It contains the unloading track A exten'din throughout its entire length. This tracl; communicates with an ingoing track A and an outgoing track A whereby cars may be drawn on the unloading track and then sent out along the outgoing track by means of hauling cables A driven from anysuitable source of power not here specifically illustrated.

The unloadin track passes over a car of or inary type comprising a bridge, locking beams B whereby the car may be locked to the bridge, and a quadrant B whereby the tipple may be rotated about an axle B to dump the car. B is a receivwhich receives grain from the hopper B into which itis discharged from the car door. This grain is carried away by the receiving belt and disposed of many terminates in a section overlying a receiving iac operator. and I have not illustrated them because they may be bought in any market pit C where hand dumping may take place. In the bottom of the it are a plurahty of discharge hoppers C their bottoms arranged to deposit on the belt B. The arrangement is such that cars may be drawn in on the tipple s otted thereon, locked in position, dumped' y tipping, and then sent out, leaving a place for the next car to come in. If a slow car comes in which cannot be dumped, it is carried on through and spotted over the receiving pit. The hopper doors are left closed and the grain is dumped into the pit. When the job has-been done and the operator wishes to dispose of the grain in the receiving pit he waits until there is no flow of grain along the belt from the tipple and then he opens the hopper doors, permits the grain to run in on the recelving belt, and it is carried on in the usual manner.

I have shown diagrammatically a haulage system wherein the haulin cable A is driven by a motor L at the dlscharge end of the line. This cable passes down parallel with the tracks being so arranged that it moves in along the incoming tracks and out along the outgoing tracks. The bight ofthe cable passes over the sheaves L adjacent the track and anchor pulleys L in thepit L This is just one way ofarranging the cable and the hauling cable mlght be arranged in any suitable manner. The cars are hauled by the cable by means of clutches which may be clamped on the cable by the These are of any suitable type of many different makes and form no part of my invention. It will be understood that there is a slight downward incline from the working house so that the cars will run 'by gravity to then switch from the incoming to the out going track. This makes it possible for the cable to pass under the incoming track, the car being hooked on only after it has moved past the switch.

Attention is called to the conveyer belt B Owing to the fact that it extends longitudinally of the tracks and not across, then its upper discharge end can be as hlgh as may be desired. As shown 1n Flg. 4, the upper discharge end of the belt at Q 1s away above the bottom of the hopper C. It there discharges into a and thence supplies the boot Q This apparatus is very much higher than the bottom of the dump hopper and thus there is nov need for deep excavation to get the end of the boot below the discharge point of the belt conveyer.

I have shown in my drawings one arrangement which would carry out my process, but clearly many suitable different arrange ments might he arrived at which would equally well solve the problem of rapidly rapid unloading zone,

discharge hopper Q dumping the fast train and still making it posslble to dump t e-slow cars without interfering wlth the fast cars, and I wish therefore that my drawings be regarded as 1n a very im ortant sense diagrammatic, even though t ey do happen 'to exemplify an operative structure.

I claim:

v1. The process of unloading cars which consists in moving them successively into a therebodily tilting them to spill their contents, then returning each unloaded car successively backward in the same general direction from which it came and meantime moving any car of the series which cannot be rapidly unloaded forwardl through the tilting zone, unloading it by and at a point immediately adjacent such zone and returning it back through the tilting zone, making it a part of the series of rapidly unloaded cars.

2. The process of unloading cars which consists in moving a series of cars successlvely into a rapld unloading zone, there bodily tilting each separate car to spill out its contents, then returnin each car back along a path generally parafielwith the path of approach and continuing this process by moving a second car forwardly into the unloading zone to take the place of the one which has ust been emptied and withdrawn and meantime movinv any car of the series which cannot be un oaded by tilting forwardlythrough the unloading zone, unloading such car by hand adjacent to such zone and then when such car has been unloaded, returning it back through the unloading zone and conveying it therefrom as part of the series of cars.

3. The process of handling cars which consists in grouping cars in an inbound storage zone, continuously moving successlve, separate cars from such zone to a hanlmgzone, there separately handling each successive car and from the handling zone and meanwhile removing for separate treament all slow handlin cars.

4. he process of han ing' cars which consists in grouping cars in an inbound storage zone, continuously moving separate, successive cars from such zone to a handling zone, there separately handling each success ve car, then moving each car as soon as it has been handled from the handling zone to the outbound storage zone, and while suchcontinuous process is going on addin from time to time additional groups 0 cars to the inbound zone and withdrawing groups of cars from the outbound zone meanwhile removing for separate treatment all slow handling cars.-

5. The process of unloading cars which consists in moving them successively into a moving each such car to the outbound storage rapid unloading zone, there unloading them, no

loaded and subsequently returning it to thecircuit.

6. The process of unloading cars which consists in moving them successively into a rapid unloading zone, there unloadin them, and then returning each unloade car successively backward in the same gen-' eral direction from which it came, in a continuous circuit, and meanwhile removing from the circuit, forwardly through the rapid unloading zone, for se arate unloading, any car of the series w ich cannot be 'rapidly unloaded and subsequently returning it to the circuit.

7. The process of unloading cars which consists in moving them successively into a rapid unloading zon'e, there unloading them, and then returning each unloaded car successively backward in the "same general direction from which it came, in a continuous circuit, and meanwhile removing from the circuit, for separate simultaneous unloading, any car of the series which cannot be rapidly unloaded and subsequently returning it to the circuit.

8. The process of unloading cars which consists in moving them successively into consists in a rapid unloadingvzone, there unloading them, and then retu each unloade car successively backward in the same general direction from which it came, in a contmuous circuit, and meanwhile removing from the circuit, forwardly through the rapid unloading zone, for separate simultaneous unloading, any car of the series which cannot be rapidly unloaded, and subsequently returning it to the circuit.

9. The process of handling cars which consists in passing them in substantially continuous circuit inwardly from a storage zone toa handling zone, and back to a storage zone, meanwhile removing from the circuit at the handling zone all slow han-' dling cars, and separately treating them.

10. The process of handling cars which passin them in substantially continuous circuit inwardly from a storage zone to a handlin zone, and back to a storage zone, meanw ile removing from the circuitat the handling zone all slow handling cars and separately treating them, and returning them, across the handling zone into the circuit.

In testimony whereof, I aflix my signature in the presence'of two witnesses this 29th day of March, 1918.

' THOMAS D. BUDD.

Witnesses: e

F, L. HAGUE, C. A. Mom. 

